Legal Lens

Reading “The Man of Law’s Tale” through a Legal lens allows for a better understanding of why Chaucer wrote Custances attempted rape scene the way he did. The secular, as well as the religious aspects in the story, are important to note and dive deeper into. The Man of Law himself is a secular lawyer, so why tell a tale involving so much Christianity? Is there a separation between church and state or does the story blur the line? One case of understanding the Christianity presented in the tale is that the mass majority of people at the time were Christian. However, I would like to point out that the embedded narrative combines church and state or secular and religious within the tale. This is because there is not a singular narrative to follow, we have Chaucer the writer, the Man of Law the lawyer, and embedded in that the Man of Law as a storyteller who is constantly interrupting the tale. Each with competing values that clash with one another allowing no separation between church and state.


Medieval Laws Surrounding Rape

The rape scene in The Man of Law’s Tale is something that to this day can resonate with females everywhere. The fear of hearing about women going through such an atrocity and knowing it could happen to anyone follows many women around. With such a malicious act comes consequences to those that partake in it. At least that is how it is depicted in The Man of Law’s Tale. As a devoted follower of God Custance doesn’t let anything stop her from believing in her savior. Yet she is put in very harmful situations and it allows the reader to question if she is being saved by the hand of God or by her own accord. According to medieval law, the rape scene poses a challenge, the law at the time did not back the use of self-defense to fight off a potential rapist. However, because of the way The Man of Law’s Tale is written, especially the rape scene Chaucer is in favor of the use of lethal force.

Before jumping into the argument about the right to kill in self-defense it’s important to note the fascination the tale holds with the often-fatal consequences of male desire and the background surrounding rape law. In each of the three parts of the tale, there is an act of homicide. The first after she travels to Syria and is set adrift in a boat, the second in Northumberland where she is framed for a murder, and the third time when the attacker falls into the sea. The second act of homicide plays a crucial role as a trial takes place to sentence the guilty party. The recurrence of homicide allows for the reader to explore the distinction made by both church and state between culpable and non-culpable homicides. In the thirteenth century raptus (forcing a woman) and ravissement (carrying off a woman) were two of the main terms used. Due to the trickiness of language, assumptions that what is attractive begs to be carried off [1]. Reading through the Aquinas in the summa theologia one can see that the law states:

It is sometimes lawful to kill a man if through his actions he represents a danger to the community. In such instances, the state may be thought to commit ‘justifiable’ homicide: this is the only form of homicide that is both intentional and lawful. Such an act of homicide can never be carried out lawfully by private individuals, but only by ‘rulers who exercise public authority’. [2]

With this law in mind, our protagonist doesn’t find herself exempt in any way because in fighting off her attacker she had no state power. However, there are two examples of lawful killing by individuals. One is an accidental killing if there was no intention to harm and there is no negligence then a person can be exempt. Then the right to kill in self-defense which is best described by Justice Prisot in 1454:

If a man assaults you in order to beat you it is not lawful for you to say you want to kill him and to endanger his life and limb: but if the case is such that he has you at such advantage that he intends to kill you as you seek to flee and he is swifter than you and pursues you so that you are unable to escape… you may menace him for such special cause”. [3]

Making the primary purpose of self-defense justification appeal to those who have had to kill when their lives, as opposed to bodily integrity was threatened. Therefore, the threat of rape was not enough to use self-defense. Furthermore, the church had it’s own ideas/laws surrounding rape: “It is only the abduction of a virgin engaged to be married that fell within the territory” [4]. Any woman that didn’t fall under this category couldn’t claim rape in the eyes of the church.

In a time that seems to be against women’s cries for help, how does Chaucer manage to help Custance? In looking at the circumstances surrounding Custance’s attempted rape. Chaucer seems to be more interested in the ethics/morals surrounding the attack. In the attempted rape scene Chaucer writes:

Hir childe cride, and she cride pitously.

But blisful Marie help hire right anon;

For with hir struglyng wel and myghtily

The theef fil over bord al sodeynly,

And in the see he dreynte for vengeance;

And thus hath Crist unwemmed kept Custance. [5]

In the Line “with hir struglyng wel and myghtily / The theef fil over bord al sodeynly” the reader can’t help but ask if her attacked fell or was pushed in Custance’s struggle. It absolves Custance of any culpability, but not because it was an accident but because of morals. The narrative strategy used here is designed to morally justify Custance defending herself from the threat of rape, even if someone died as a result. Since lusting after women to such an extent is morally wrong it is morally justifiable to fight back as a woman.

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[1]Gravdal, Kathryn. Ravishing Maidens: Writing Rape in Medieval French Literature and Law.: 6

[2] O’Connell, Brendan. “‘Struglyng wel and myghtily’: Resisting Rape in the Man of Law’s Tale.”: 21

[3] O’Connell, Brendan: 23

[4] Gravdal, Kathryn: 10

[5] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 176-82


Religious elements

The number of Christian elements in The Man of Law’s Tale can be found from the start of the tale up until the end of it. Scholars argue that these Christian elements in The Man of Law’s Tale were done so unconsciously. However, John Yuck argues that it is incidental to his devotional aims.

Custance, a woman with saint-like faith is the only child of the emperor, therefore, was educated as if she were male. This helped shape her character into the preaching woman we read about. In Custances ability to change the religious mindset of others the tale doesn’t let her take credit, rather gives all the glory to God. By stressing the activity of God and the passivity of all other Custance’s preaching is suppressed making her appear more femininely gracious attractive, and passive [1]. Reducing Custance to a childlike instrument for divine guidance. She receives all her victories by prayer and submission to God; making him the actual protagonist of the story. During an interruption in the play this comment is made stating:

God liste to shewe his wonderful miracle

 In hire, for we sholde seen his myghty werkis;

 Crist, which that is to every harm triacle,

 By certeine meenes ofte, as knowen clerkis

 Dooth thyng for certein ende that ful derk is

 To mannes wit, that for oure ignorance

 Ne konne noght knowe his prudent purveianc [2]

Custance’s role is as a vessel through which God’s province is manifested. The Man of Law adds these interruptions that further a theme that doesn’t call for the humanization of Custance. She appears weak to the audience because she is not a character in the modern sense, she is an extension for God’s divine grace. Creating a large point of comparison to saintly hood Chaucer reworks Custance talk within hagiographic traditions. He does this by turning to a traditional prayer of the martyrs: “Immortal God, that savedest Susanne / Fro false blame, and thou, merciful mayde…” [3]. By using the prayers sparingly, they don’t “clog” the narrative but act as a tribute to heroes of the early church echoes glory came from divine submission [4]. Portraying one way in which the religious elements could be viewed in The Man of Law’s Tale.

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[1] Yunck, John. “Religious Elements in Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale”: 521

[2] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 477-483

[3] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 639-644

[4] Yunck, John: 256-258


Embeded Narratives

The distinct elements between the secular and religious aspects of the tale have their distinct readings, however, they do tend to have overlap making the reading confusing. Barlow emphasizes that while the tale appears to have inconsistencies, the reader shouldn’t view this as failings of the text. These inconsistencies call attention to the activity of narration going on in the tale. Arguing that: “in each part of the Man of Law’s Tale we are shown narrators who use their authority as a means of laying claim to the spiritual authority of their material.” [1].

Our internal narrator comes across as supporting the virtuous sentence of the tale. He is reiterating it an acknowledges the spiritual authority. While condemning the sultaness the narrator comes to a halt stating: This Sowdanesse, whom I thus blame and warye, Leet prively hire conseil goon hire way. What sholde I in this tale lenger tarye? [2]. The internal narrator of the tale admits to changing the tale by adding something. Admitting he is the one judging the sultaness, a digression is made from the tale. The digression itself doesn’t change the events in the tale, rather the reader’s perception of it.

The same type of interjection can later be seen in the tale surrounding Custance’s escape from her would be rapist. In which he echoes a language of submission suggesting that the internal narrator is in no more control than Custance is. When Custance is threatened with rape the internal narrator says a prayer: “the narrator utters a prayer for her safety: Almyghty God, that saveth al mankynde, Have on Custance and on hir child som mynde, That fallen is in hethen hand eft soone” [3]. The choice of tense act as if the narrator does not know what is going to happen in his own story.  It is as if he is hearing the story in real time with the audience. Since our narrator should already know Custance is going to be saved what is the point in saying a prayer? Rather than using a prayer for spiritual authority our narrator is using the “idea of faith to enhance the suspense and emotional depth of the tale [using] the spiritual currency of the tale’s sentence as a narrative trick, revealing his crafting of the tale even as he simultaneously attributes the tale to another authority” [4].

When reading and analyzing the whole story surrounding Custance what is found comes from a political perspective. The way Chaucer wrote the tale causes confusion amongst which reading has more authority over the other. The answer itself is that they simply overlap with one another, interconnecting by using narrative strategies to depict Custance in the form they please. The tale depicts Custance’s spiritual circulation and the effects of that circulation on the political sphere of her world. During her marriage to the Sultan intense negotiation happens: “by tretys and embassadrie, And by the popes mediacioun, And al the chirche, and al the chivalrie [5]. Here the church is cooperating with a secular power to make a deal. This relation makes it unclear what is more at stake the spiritual or political? The main point being that the tale equates spiritual and political authority in which both the institutional Church, the secular mercantile, and political economy use Custance as a form of symbolic capital to enrich/empower themselves [6]. The Man of Law himself also uses spiritual currency as secular currency, after all, he is telling this story in hopes of a free meal. This gives his tale potential economic value he can use.

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[1] Barlow, Gania. “A Thrifty Tale: Narrative Authority and the Competing Values of the ‘Man of Law’s Tale.’”: 398

[2] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 372-374

[3] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 907–909

[4] Barlow, Gania: 404

[5] “The Man of Law’s Tale,” II 233–235

[6] Barlow, Gania: 408

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